It doesn’t get any better than this. Even as England showed desperate signs of improvement from their performance so far in the series, the Men In Blue prove just too good for them. England was dished out (yet another) defeat at the Indian hands in the Fifth Day-Night ODI held in Cuttack. England displayed their best batting show in the Hero Honda Cup as they put together 271 runs as a target for the hosts which India achieved with six wickets remaining and six overs to go.

England suffered two initial jolts after India won the toss and sent chose to field first. Zaheer Khan dismissed the opening duo Ravi Bopara (24) and Alistair Cook (11) when England had reached a total of 68. Kevin Pietersen then built a firm ground with Collingwood (40) which served as the perfect thriving ground for a crackling 111* by the skipper and a crisp 66* by Owais Shah. Shah and Pietersen together added 112 runs for the 5th wicket. This was Pietersen’s 7th ODI century and holds the dubious distinction of being the best English batting performance in this series.

India never looked too far away from the 271 they were chasing, thanks to the brilliant opening partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. A 136-run stand between the two classic openers ensured stability to the team even as they suffered two losses on two consecutive balls. Sachin’s dismissal after he scored 50 off 54 balls brought gloom in the English camp as Yuvraj Singh arrived to play with a series average of 160. His caught and bowled by the naive bowler Ravi Bopara sparked some cheer which doubled as Sehwag (91) was meted out a crude lbw decision on the very next delivery. India were 115 short of victory and two comfortable fifties by skipper MS Dhoni (50) and Suresh Raina (54*) glided India safely to the target, never mind the two middle hiccups.

England doesn’t have much left in their hands to maintain. With nothing to look forward to in the remaining two matches, its high time England got a mind-job. They should have taken alarm after a bitter defeat in the practice match before the ODI Series started. Their troubles have grown as Stuart Broad got an unfit hamstring in this match.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: